Friday, June 11, 2010

This is about as primitive as it gets. Take some garlic, capers, anchovy, and parsley, and smash it up in a molcajete, or other mortar and pestle type grinding device. Add a little oil and vinegar, possibly a pinch of salt and pepper, and you have maybe the world's greatest grilled meat condiment.

The sharpness of the sauce, and the brightness of the flavors makes for a perfect marriage with the smoky meat and its subtly bitter grill marks. As I say in the video, the secret here isn't the ingredients, as you can really use any kind of green herbs you want, but it's the grinding and smashing.

Certain things happen to hand-ground food that just don't occur in a food processor. You can check a site like Cooking for Engineers for the scientific reason, but tasting is believing.

"It's a one-hitter." Really? I'm rather surprised you went there, Chef.

I like this technique for soup au pistou. Sure, you can just whip it all together in a food processor, but if you wanna put the piste in your pistou, well... there really isn't a substitute.

The same goes for aioli. Take your time. Put on some soft music. Talk to it, gently. Feel the burn in your forearms, and realize that you are not just grinding away at aromatic vegetable matter. The act is transformative. You are making love, in an edible form.

On the surface it may seem such a trivial thing, but invest yourself in the process, and the reward will be transcendent.

Hi Chef John :-) I've only just found your site and I love it! This Mango Crambango sounds delicious - I'll make it just for the name but I'm going to have to find out what Ghost Pepper Sauce is. I live in England and I don't think we've heard about Ghost Peppers yet, but I could be mistaken :-)) Thanks for all your recipes. I've just bought myself a molcajete and I'm going to make your lovely salsa verde. Cheers, Hilary x

Hi Chef John :-) I've just come across your site and I love it! This Salsa Verde sounds wonderful and I've just bought myself a molcajete to make it in. Thanks so much for your informative and amusing posts. I think I will be a regular visitor to your site :-))

This sounds really, really good - I'll bet it will be beautiful with roast leg of lamb! I'm going to have to do some research on Ghost Pepper Sauce as I live in England and I don't think we know about Ghost Peppers yet! Maybe Tabasco Sauce would be an alternative if I can't find Ghost Pepper Sauce - that's a hot one, too.